Guest post: The growing problem of how extreme heat damages mental health - Carbon Brief

In recent years, discussions around the impact of climate change on mental health have tended to focus on climate anxiety.

This distress regarding the future of the Earth and humanity in the face of global warming is, however, far from the full picture.

Research is helping to build a better understanding of the damage that climate change, particularly extreme heat, can cause to mental health.

The latest assessment report on climate impacts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with very high confidence that rising global temperatures have “adversely affected” mental health in regions around the world.

Research indicates that heatwaves can trigger increases in both the hospitalisation of people with mental-health challenges and emergency psychiatric visits. People with pre-existing mental-health problems also have an increased risk of dying during periods of high temperatures.

In addition, suicide rates have been shown to increase in higher temperatures and are expected to rise in a warmer world – although the links with climate change are complex and compounded by other factors.

Despite these research findings, significant gaps remain in understanding the biological, psychological, social and environmental interactions between mental health and heat.

And policymakers have a huge amount of ground to make up, with mental health barely featuring in climate-related policies and commitments around the world.